THUNDER BAY – A 24-hour fundraising blitz set for this Tuesday will give efforts to bring heart surgery to Thunder Bay’s regional hospital a shot in the arm.
The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation hopes to raise $49,000 with its Giving Tuesday raise-a-thon – enough to purchase seven pacemaker generators, which are used to restart patients’ hearts and stabilize their rhythm, following surgery.
The fundraiser is part of the years-long Our Hearts at Home campaign, which aims to launch cardiovascular surgery at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.
The campaign has now raised over $13 million, staff with the foundation said Monday.
The organization has previously cited a fundraising goal of $14 million, necessary to fund equipment and a local portion of construction costs to expand operating rooms.
Patients currently have to travel thousands of kilometres to southern Ontario for heart surgery.
Rod Morrison, who made a trip to Hamilton in 2014 for a quintuple bypass, said he hopes the fundraising campaign can help local patients avoid the experience in the future.
The more than nine-hour return trip after being discharged was a strain, he said, while he and his wife lacked the family and friend support networks they could have relied on in Thunder Bay during more than a week spent in Hamilton.
“It was a very long, trying experience – equally trying for my wife, because the burden fell on her to make all the arrangements and manage everything,” he said.
A local cardiovascular surgery program would help hundreds of local residents avoid that trip each year, said Lindsay Doran, digital engagement coordinator for the Health Sciences Foundation.
While the COVID-19 pandemic means Doran won’t be on hand with other staff and volunteers to accept donations in person at the hospital, there are several ways to participate in the campaign.
Donors can give online anytime Tuesday at healthsciencesfoundation.ca/gt, by phone at (807) 345-4673 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., or make a $20 donation by texting the word HEART to 20222.
Donations made Tuesday will be matched dollar for dollar, thanks to donors including Rainbow Printers, Wanson Lumber, Stantec, and Devan Mascarin from Downtown Volkswagen.
In 2019, the foundation flew past its $40,000 goal, raising more than $70,000.
“The support from the community in our past Giving Tuesdays has blown me away every single year,” Doran said.
